Whosoever March/April 2010Issue Theme: Original Blessing

Table of Contents

Cover Stories:

Changing our focus to an "original blessing" or an "original goodness" or "original wisdom" frees us to celebrate our not just the creation around us, but the creation of our selves, the creation of our bodies, and, for our community especially, the creation of our sexuality.

Examination of the story in Genesis shows God creating Adam. This one person, it turns out, is divided into two by God, one male, one female. They are each part of a single creation. Their sex differentiates them, but there is no difference in status.

With a sincere belief and knowing that a Loving God is the Source of all of the good things we know, it is difficult to maintain old, harmful and negative beliefs which no longer serve us but instead restrain us from experiencing the life I feel we were meant to have, one filled with abundant joy and a sense of oneness with not only God but all of Creation.

Bisexual people live in-between the world of gays and lesbians and the world of their heterosexual peers. It is an exciting and unique space, yet quite often an uncomfortable space filled with suspicion and misunderstanding.

The top two people in the United States government slammed the Ugandan "Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009" at The Family's National Prayer Breakfast on February 4 - and President Barack Obama described the Bill as "odious".

The LGBT community in Uganda is part of a global minority, a family, a tribe. When one part of the community is under threat of state and extra-judicial violence as we witnessed here in Uganda, the global LGBT community is called to act.

The problem will only be solved when Bible bigotry is forcefully attacked; when African churches start valueing the lives and loves of Gay men; when African preachers start condemning mob violence instead of encouraging it; when religious hatemongers like Rick Warren, Martin Ssempa and Laurence Chai are exposed as the false prophets that they are and dealt with accordingly.

When we allow ourselves to get into the "beginner's mind" we learn to say, "I don't know," and we say it a lot. Those are three words we don't like to say - because we think if we say we don't know something, we'll look stupid or be thought of as stupid.

Love demands a high price from us, asking us to open our minds and hearts and not turn away from those in this world who are desperate to hear a few silly love songs. Love is persistent - it calls and calls, and waits for our answer. Will we be true? Are we willing to sing silly love songs in this world?

What would happen if you gave up any idea of going it alone and making sure that for the next 40 days you found new ways to be in community with those around you - whether they are friends, co-workers, strangers, or even enemies?

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